After 3 years of heartache, Seahawks set eyes on girls’ tennis crown

Sarah Wood got her first state championship ring in seventh grade. Classmates Holly Kerr and Nicole Diaz joined her the following year.

Surely by their senior years, they’d have a nice collection. By that point, Hilton Head Island had brought home its sixth consecutive girls’ tennis trophy, with no sign of slowing down.

Four years later, the ring count remains the same. “I don’t think we really realized how hard it was,” Wood said.

After three years of hitting a wall in the Lower State final, the Seahawks’ senior trio finally has one more chance to add to their jewelry box. Hilton Head Island is favored in Saturday’s Class 4A title showdown, taking on Greenville at Cayce Tennis & Fitness Center.

“It’s definitely different this time,” said Kerr. “We know how hard it is to get back to where we are.”

It’s a realization that often only comes with time. Dan Marino played in a Super Bowl in his second NFL season, then spent 15 years futilely chasing another. Bret Saberhagen was a World Series MVP at age 21 and never played in another.

Four years ago, Wood and Kerr were the doubles specialists as Hilton Head beat AC Flora in the Class 3A final. The ensuing years saw them move into the singles lineup, then up the ladder to their current spots at Nos. 1 and 2.

Though the region titles continued to pile up — now 11 straight and counting — there was suddenly a roadblock at the Lower State final. A talented core had developed at Myrtle Beach, which stopped Hilton Head’s run in 2013 on the way to its own state crown.

“To go to Lower State and not win it — it wasn’t a shock but, OK, we’re not impenetrable,” coach Jennifer Weitekamper said. “They just knocked us down. OK, put your big-girl shoes back on, come back the next year. We can do this — and we hit the same hurdle.”

Myrtle Beach won another state title in 2014 — and a third straight last year, each time leaving Hilton Head in disappointment at Lower States.

“Getting to states had been so easy for us in the past,” Wood said. “We’ve had such solid teams. Our team was still solid when we played Myrtle Beach, but they were really good too. They’ve gotten stronger.”

Down to their final opportunity, senior year brought a new determination. “This was it for them,” Weitekamper said. “It was a dry spell, and their hearts wanted it.”

The coach was quick to laud Diaz, who came to Weitekamper privately to ask where she was needed most.

“Nicole had worked herself into playing a singles position and wanting that bad,” Weitekamper said. “But she said, ‘If I need to play doubles, I’ll help lock up that doubles point.’ The other girls have (noticed) that, too.”

Diaz owns a 14-4 record this year, providing a steady hand in that part of the lineup. Wood and Kerr, meanwhile, have qualified for next week’s state singles championship and will play in the North/South All-Star matches.

None of it, though, would have been nearly as fulfilling without that trip back to the final Saturday. And when the Seahawks dispatched AC Flora — now a Lower State member — “we couldn’t stop smiling,” said Kerr, who earned the clinching point in a three-set thriller.

Asked if they recalled much about that 2012 trophy ceremony, Wood and Kerr hemmed and hawed. Rest assured, they’ll remember every moment if it happens again.

“I think we can do it,” Wood said. “Our team’s pretty strong. If we can have the focus like we’ve had, we’ll be fine.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 9:36 PM with the headline "After 3 years of heartache, Seahawks set eyes on girls’ tennis crown."